TransformerMan

A powerful Anki AI add-on that allows you to create new notes and enhance existing ones using 🤖 LMs.

Features

• 🤖 AI-Powered Field Completion: Fill empty fields in bulk using language models
• ✨ Generate New Notes: Create fresh flashcards based on prompts and existing note patterns
• 📝 Context-Aware: Automatically uses related notes as examples to guide generation
• 📋 Custom Instructions: Add field-specific instructions to guide the AI
• 🔍 Preview Before Applying: See what changes will be made before committing them
• ✅ Multiple LM Support: Gemini, DeepSeek, Claude, OpenAI, and a Dummy client for testing

Use Cases

• 🌍 Translation: Translate text from one field to another in any language
• 🧠 Mnemonics: Create memory aids and associations to help retention
• 🎨 Visual Content: Generate SVG images to visualize concepts
• 📚 Definitions & Examples: Fill in explanations, examples, or clarifications
• 🏷️ Classification: Tag, annotate, or categorize learning material
• 📦 Deck Standardization: Fill missing information in decks you've downloaded or imported
• ❓ Active Recall: Generate cloze deletions or question-answer pairs from content
• 🆕 Deck Expansion: Rapidly create new notes based on patterns from existing ones

Installation

To download this add-on, please copy and paste the following code into Anki (Tools > Add-ons > Get Add-ons...): 1033047802

Usage

Quick Start

Configure Settings (first time only):

• Go to Tools → TransformerMan Settings
• Select a LM Client (e.g., Gemini, DeepSeek)
• Enter your API key (if needed)
• Select your preferred model

Fill Fields in Existing Notes:

• Open the card browser
• Select one or more notes
• Right-click and select TransformerMan > Fill Fields
• Select which fields to include via the "Read" checkbox
• Click the "Write" checkbox to allow writing to the field
• CTRL or shift click on the "Write" checkbox to allow overwriting existing content
• (Optional) Add custom instructions for specific fields
• Click Preview to see what changes will be made
• Review the changes and click Apply to save changes

Tip: You can hold shift and click on "Preview" to view and modify the generated prompt before sending it to the LM.

Generate New Notes:

• Open the card browser
• Select one or more example notes to guide generation
• Right-click and select TransformerMan > Generate Notes
• Enter a prompt describing what notes you want to create
• Select which fields to include
• Click Generate notes
• Review, change and/or discard the generated notes
• Click Create new notes to add them to your collection

Free Options

• Gemini: Get a free API key from Google AI Studio
• LM Studio: Download LM Studio, run local LLMs like gpt-oss, Qwen3, DeepSeek on your computer
• DeepSeek: Free tier with generous limits, get API key from DeepSeek Platform
• Groq: Free tier available with rate limits, get API key from Groq Console

Configuration

Settings

Access via Tools → TransformerMan Settings:

• LM Client: Choose from available language model clients (Dummy, OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenAI Custom)
• Model: Select model based on chosen client (e.g., OpenAI: GPT-4o/GPT-4o-mini/o1/o3 series, Claude: various models, etc.)
• API Key: Your language model API key
• Max Prompt Size: Maximum prompt size in characters (a lower number would require more batches)
• Timeout: Request timeout in seconds
• Max Notes Per Batch: Maximum number of notes to process in a single batch
• Max Examples: Maximum number of example notes to use for generated prompt
• Custom Settings: Client-specific settings (e.g., Organization ID for OpenAI)

Note: both Max Prompt Size and Max Notes Per Batch limit the number of notes processed in a single batch, and thus the number of API calls needed.

How It Works

Fill Fields

1. Note Selection: Select notes in the Anki browser and open TransformerMan from the menu or right-click context menu

2. Field Configuration: For each field in your note type, you can:

   • Context (read): Include a field in the prompt to provide context
   • Writable (write): Allow empty fields to be filled
   • Overwritable: Ctrl+click on 'Write' checkbox to allow overwriting existing content
   • Instructions: Add field-specific instructions to guide the LM

3. Example Selection: The plugin selects example notes from your collection (up to your configured "Max Examples" setting) that:

   • Have the same note type
   • Have the most filled fields (in the selected field set)
   • Have the highest word count in those fields

4. Batch Processing: Notes are automatically batched based on your "Max Prompt Size" setting to optimize API usage and minimize costs

5. Prompt Construction: Creates structured prompts with:

   • Field-specific instructions (if provided)
   • Example notes in XML format
   • Target notes to fill

6. LM Processing: Sends batches to the language model and receives filled notes with progress tracking

7. Preview Display: Shows what changes will be made with green highlighting in a table format

8. Note Updates: Updates notes after user confirmation

Contributing

For development guidelines, testing instructions, and contribution information, please see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

GNU GPL-3.0 - See LICENSE file for details

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions, please visit the project repository.